When in 2011 the French musician Franck Carducci contacted me for a possible review of his debut album ODDITY (see review), I never could have foreseen that his career would take off so fast! Especially in the Netherlands, his second home because he lives in Amsterdam occasionally, he became rather popular among progressive rock lovers. Promoting his debut and his second effort Torn Apart (see review), which he released five years later, gained him a large loyal following. Anybody who has been to his concerts with his amazing live band knows that you are entertained all the way! Especially the concerts on the “Tearing The Tour Apart Tour” to promote his second album were just incredible! Therefore it was a wise decision of Franck to capture one of these shows for a possible live release. This resulted in the release of Tearing The Tour Apart DVD and CD. Tearing The Tour Apart was recorded on audio and video during two concerts at the Climax Club Legend in Lyon (France) on November 20 and 21 in 2015. On the cover of both the CD and DVD version you can enjoy the wonderful artwork of Frank's keyboard player Olivier Castan. He also did the design for Torn Apart under the pseudonym of Casoli. This time he created a caricature of the maestro himself, dressed up with the double neck guitar and the famous hat he wears during Franck's usual encore Alice's Eerie Dream. The booklet contains some fantastic pictures of Mathieu Spaeter (6 and 12 string guitars, vocals), Mary Reynaud (rainstick, tambourine, vocals), the already mentioned Olivier Castan (keyboards and vocals), Christophe Obadia (electric guitar, didjeridoo, bass pedals, vocals), Franck Carducci (bass, 12 string guitar, vocals) plus special guest drummer Jimmy Pallagrosi (Karnataka). The one hour and fifty minutes long performance had no surprises in store for me, after seeing this show several times. I knew it wouldn't be boring to see and hear everything again. The only question I was only wondering if they could bring to the screen what I had seen with my very own eyes at close range! Well, I must say they succeeded very well. Sure, some things could have been done better, but the overall feeling was that they did a very good job! The close ups of the musicians and their interaction with each other was captured very well. You can see that all of them have fun both on and off stage. It is most of all Reynaud who dances and wanders around the stage and interacts with the other band members. The band wholeheartedly performs the songs from Carducci's two studio albums, which never sound the same as the original studio versions. The extra vocal, guitar and keyboard parts bring so much extra to the table, this way the songs get even more energy and sometimes just explode on stage! To mention what happens during every song is impossible, but worth mentioning is the sword fight between Castan The DVD has no extras, but I guess that's not needed after watching a very entertaining show. So thumbs up for keeping you glued to the screen throughout the entire concert! Due to a time limit the CD contains less music than the DVD, although the track list is almost the same. It is just the closing section of Supper's Ready that is not included and they skipped most of the introductions of the song and the sound fragment for the sword fight. The almost eighty minutes of music sound very good, even if it is only the stereo mix. So hats off for that! All in all I can say that Franck Carducci did an amazing job with the release of Tearing The Tour Apart on DVD and CD. It can't have been easy to get everything mixed and edited, which must be the reason it took almost a whole year before it was released. Franck's fans can be very satisfied with the way it turned out and buy both discs without hesitation. And for those who are not familiar with Carducci's catalogue, this is a nice way to start with his music. Thanks Franck for giving us so much pleasure with your music and visual presentation! **** Henri Strik (edited by Astrid de Ronde) Where to buy? |
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